Don Bowed To Me Chapter 19
I stopped and looked at her, calm.
Chiara jabbed a finger at me.
Chiara：”An hour ago I was still a Barone.”
Chiara：”Now I have nowhere to go.”
Chiara：”Do you have any idea what being cast out of the Barone family means?”
Chiara：”My mother locked the Philadelphia house tonight. My credit cards are frozen.”
Chiara：”Every piece of Van Cleef in my room, I have to return to my father.”
Chiara：”Every single person I’ve known for twenty-four years. Starting tonight, they’ll all pretend they never knew me.”
She laughed, brittle.
Chiara：”Because of you. I have nothing.”
Marco shifted half a step forward.
He didn’t speak.
He just reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small bottle.
I’d seen a bottle like that once, ten years ago.
A capo had crossed the wrong Genovese woman. Her cousin caught him on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and threw the contents in his face.
The left side of his face had been the color of burnt paper ever since.
Hazel：”Chiara.”
My voice stayed level.
Hazel：”Before you do this, think about it.”
Hazel：”We just had a scene an hour ago. If something happens to me tonight, do you really believe you’ll walk away clean?”
Chiara lifted her chin.
Chiara：”No one goes looking for a woman who’s no longer a Barone.”
Chiara：”Tonight I’m not a Barone. I’m just Chiara.”
Chiara：”The cameras in this stretch are already offline. I made sure of that. Let’s see who comes running to save you this time.”
I could see it now. The look behind her eyes. She was going through with it.
Marco held the bottle up so I could see.
Marco：”Dr. Vitale.”
Marco：”Miss Chiara only wanted a word tonight. You insulted her.”
Marco：”If you kneel and apologize, nothing happens.”
Marco：”If you don’t”
He tilted the bottle.
Marco：”Half of this is enough.”
I looked at him and said his name.
Hazel：”Marco.”
He flinched. He hadn’t expected me to know it.
Hazel：”Have you thought about this? After you do this tonight, do you make it back to Newark?”
Hazel：”Does your boss let you run his line next week?”
Hazel：”The Trentinos only have a foothold in New York because the Marchettis allow it. Every deal. Every corner.”
Hazel：”You touch me tonight. Next week the entire Trentino operation gets wiped out.”
Marco’s hand trembled.
Chiara whipped her head around and screamed at him.
Chiara ：”Marco. You promised me.”
Chiara ：”You said if I agreed to marry you, you’d take care of her.”
I actually laughed. So that’s how it was.
Marco was breathing hard.
The bottle was still capped.
But his fingers were on the cap now.
Marco：”Dr. Vitale.”
Marco：”I’m counting to three.”
Marco：”You kneel. Or you get ruined.”
Marco：”One.”
Marco：”Two.”
Just as Marco started to twist the cap, footsteps echoed sharp and fast from the corner.
Marco and Chiara both turned.
Sebastian stepped out of the shadows.
He walked up to me. Stopped.
Sebastian：”Hazel,I’m here.”
Sebastian：”Are you okay? Scared?”
Hazel：”I’m fine. I’m not scared.”
Sebastian nodded once.
Then he turned to face them.
Nothing like the way he looked at me. Nothing at all.
His face had gone blank.
Sebastian：”Marco.”
Marco’s knees buckled. His voice came out shaking.
Marco：”Sebastian.”
Sebastian：”That bottle in your hand. Put it down.”
Marco’s fingers froze on the cap.
Sebastian：”I said. Put it down.”
Slowly, Marco set the bottle on the sidewalk.
Sebastian lifted his foot and nudged the bottle into the storm drain at the curb.
A splash.
A small streak of scorched brown bloomed against the concrete wall.
Marco stared at the mark.
He finally understood what half a bottle could do.
He dropped to his knees.
Marco：”Sebastian. I was wrong. It was Chiara.”
“Shut up.” Sebastian’s voice was quiet.
Sebastian：”Kneel where you are. Wait for the family and the committee to deal with you.”
Marco shook and pressed his forehead against his knees. He didn’t dare look up at either of us.
Sebastian pulled out his phone and pressed one key.
A black car rolled up from the corner of 52nd Street.
Two Marchetti soldiers got out.
Neither said a word. They grabbed Marco and hauled him into the car.
Now it was just me. Sebastian. And Chiara.
Sebastian turned to her for the first time.
Sebastian：”Chiara. The Marchetti family already gave you one chance.”
Chiara trembled and looked up at him.
Chiara：”Sebastian. I…”
Sebastian：”The first thing you did after leaving Le Bernardin was call Marco.”
Sebastian：”You agreed to marry him. In exchange.”
Sebastian：”You told him to wait for Dr. Vitale on Fifth Avenue.”
Sebastian：”I knew all of it. From the second you walked out of Le Bernardin.”
Chiara’s eyes went wide.
Sebastian：”The moment your father cut you loose, I had someone on you.”
Sebastian：”I let Dr. Vitale walk alone tonight.”
Sebastian：”I followed her for twenty minutes.”
Sebastian：”I was waiting for you to make your move.”
Chiara collapsed onto the sidewalk.
Her heeled boots buckled underneath her at a strange angle.
Sebastian：”For ten years, I turned you down three separate times.” Sebastian looked down at her.
Sebastian：”Every single time, I told you. There was nothing between us.”
Sebastian：”You didn’t listen. Your mother didn’t listen. No one on the East Coast listened.”
Sebastian：”Until tonight. And tonight, you crossed one line too many.”
Sebastian：”I’m done being gentle with you, Chiara. This time, no one is coming to save you.”
Chiara started to cry.
Not the pretty pearl-tear crying from Le Bernardin.
The other kind. Wrenched up from somewhere deep in her throat. Ugly. Broken.
Sebastian didn’t look at her again. He turned and let the soldiers take her away.